Luggage at St Pancras. Air and Eurostar services have been hit by bad weather, and more delays are expected. Photograph: Carl De Souza/AFP/Getty Images

Heathrow airport could remain in a state of partial paralysis beyond Christmas, its owner admitted yesterday, spelling misery for the tens of thousands of passengers who face the prospect of being stranded over the festive period.

BAA said two-thirds of flights into and out of Britain's largest airport would be cancelled until at least Wednesday morning because it has the resources to keep only one of its two runways open.

The news came as Philip Hammond, the transport secretary, told MPs the government needs to consider whether Britain is experiencing a "step change" in its weather which would justify continental-style winter equipment to keep roads and airports open.

In a statement to MPs, Hammond said BAA told ministers it had been a mistake to try to operate a full schedule on Saturday and that it should have cut "severely" the number of flights departing and arriving. This would have meant the airport would not have been congested with aircraft when the snow fell.

Hammond said: "What has happened at Heathrow airport is not acceptable. We have to work with the airport operator and with the airlines to work out how to avoid this kind of situation in the first place … That is the kind of practical lesson learning that has to be done."

Last night officials at Gatwick airport also said that its runways would be closed until early this morning.

Britain's largest airport owner warned it could be operating at reduced capacity all week, with experts predicting the backlog would not be cleared in time for 25 December. "Passengers should anticipate further delays and cancellations in the following days and potentially beyond Christmas Day," said BAA.

The group's chief executive, Colin Matthews, said BAA had been too slow to clear the deep-packed snow that has stranded jets at Heathrow's 200 aircraft stands. "We were overly optimistic about how quickly we could clear the stands of snow. I regret that," he said.

Road and rail services also faced severe disruption as the cold snap continued, with Eurostar passengers enduring their second successive year of mass cancellations at Christmas. Hammond relaxed restrictions on night flights at Heathrow, but said further snow was on the way, with up to 10cm expected in London and the south-east by this morning.

The cold weather also resulted in gas consumption hitting an all-time high as people opted to work from home instead of going in their workplaces, according to initial estimates by National Grid, the network operator.

Aviation sources pointed to pressure on runway de-icer stocks. "Things are getting tight and the Department for Transport needs to ensure that we are being supplied," said one source.

Boris Johnson, the London mayor, expressed exasperation at the virtual shutdown. "It can't be beyond the wit of man, surely, to find the shovels, the diggers, the snowplows or whatever it takes to clear the snow out from under the planes, to get the planes moving and to have more than one runway going," he said.

John Strickland, an airline consultant and former British Airways manager, said passengers with Heathrow's largest airline faced a struggle to travel. "The amount of capacity that has been lost through the wipeout of the past couple of days cannot be replaced, because the flights that are due to operate over the next few days are heavily booked," he said.

A source at one Heathrow airline acknowledged that BAA had been hit by "unprecedented" snowfall, but criticised the speed of the airport owner's response. "Ideally, BAA would have had more resources for this. We have had our planes de-iced and ready to go whenever asked, but you cannot do anything if the runways and taxiways are iced," the source said. Communication with BAA had been "difficult", the source added.

The prime minister's official spokesman was forced to defend the government against charges of complacency because it has not yet convened a meeting of Cobra, the emergency planning committee.

"The meetings that are taking place are essentially the same kind of meetings as a Cobra meeting … of senior officials and or ministers from different departments to discuss issues, and those meetings have been happening," he said.

Hammond will assess advice on Britain's weather patterns from the government's chief scientific adviser, Professor Sir John Beddington, before examining with transport operators the business case in each sector for "increased investment in winter resilience".

The transport secretary told MPs: "We recognise that the cost, both economic and social, of this level of disruption, can be great. Winters such as this year's and last have been rare in modern Britain, but we need to consider whether we are now seeing a step change in our weather that might justify investment in equipment and technologies to reduce the impacts of severe weather. This is not just about making sure that people can travel and goods get delivered. Disrupted transport links, combined with cold weather, increasingly impact on other essential services. In particular, they threaten the vulnerable in our communities."

David Quarmby, chairman of the RAC Foundation, who conducted a review into last year's severe weather impact, will tomorrow produce an interim review for this year. Hammond said that local and central government had made considerable improvements in the provision of gritting salt – one of Quarmby's main criticisms in his July report.